Storing C02 underground could trigger quakes

Scientists say it is possible to capture and store carbon dioxide underground as a way reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants. But Stanford researchers claim in a newly published letter in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that it would probably be a waste of money to try because such storage could trigger earthquakes that would release the gas back into the atmosphere. (Abstract of PNAS letter.)

Storing carbon this way would be especially risky in places like California, which is riddled with earthquake faults. But Zoback and Gorelick also note that "modern seismic networks have shown that earthquakes occur nearly everywhere in continental interiors ... It should also be noted that despite the low overall rate of earthquake occurrences in continental interiors, some of the most devastating earthquakes in history have occurred in these regions." The shakers include three quakes measuring 7.0 or larger that hit southeast Missouri in 1811 and 1812.

Scientists are looking for ways to reduce greenhouse emissions because coal-powered electrical power plants generate 2.1 billion metric tons of C02 each year, or 36 percent of all US emissions, says the PNAS letter. China produces three times of much carbon dioxide at coal-fired electrical plants.